Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
The High Holy Days end on Simchat Torah. Their arc is based on the Bracha-Blessing idea seen in both the last Torah portion – Ha’azinu – and the first one, Bereshit. These Blessings are a bridge, notes Rabbi Matt Berkowitz, Vice President of Schechter Institutes, Inc.
As we journey toward the end of Sukkot, the holiday of Simchat Torah comes into focus. Simchat Torah could not be a more fitting way to conclude the spiritual journey that we have all been on since the start of the Yamim Noraim.
When we think of the arc of the Yamim Noraim it is about turning inward and engaging in self-critique. We look carefully to understand the parts of ourselves that we wish to leave behind or improve. If we engage in teshuvah in a serious, thoughtful, deliberate way, it can be uncomfortable at times. But out of that discomfort will hopefully come a new beginning and new blessings.
The act of concluding Torah and beginning anew during Simchat Torah mirrors this notion perfectly. As we near the end of Torah, in Parashat Ha’azinu, Moshe reviews all the shortcomings of the Children of Israel – and he issues warnings about the future. However, as Moses gets closer and closer to his own death – the moment in which he will part from his challenging and beloved people, the content of the message changes dramatically: we transition from critique to blessing. “V’zot ha Bracha asher barakh Moshe Ish HaElohim et Bnai Yisrael lifnei moto.”
Rashi comments emphatically that these words that Moshe utters are right near his death and if not now, then when. What is the lesson that we are taught?
Rav Shmuel Avidor HaCohen of blessed memory, one of the great rabbis who taught homiletics some twenty-five years ago at the Schechter Institute, writes that a true leader does not flatter the masses. Rather she speaks the truth to them – and indeed the entire truth – even it is a bitter pill to swallow. A real leader speaks of weaknesses, seeks correctives for distortions in society and responsibly issues warnings to his people – just as Moses does in Ha’azinu. But in addition, a responsible leader is one of compassion — who pours out love and care to every group or tribe that comprises the nation.
Rabbi Shmuel Avidor HaCohen
Beautifully, Moses recognizes that he wants to part from his people on a high note – out of love, compassion and optimism – not out of bitterness. Moses gracefully blesses each tribe placing a compelling legacy into the hands of his people. And just as Torah ends with this notion of Bracha, blessing, so too does it begin on the same note.
As we turn our attention to Bereshit, the Book of Genesis, we see the act of blessing appear on the fifth day of creation: after God creates living creatures, cattle, creeping things and wild beasts, we are told, “vayivarekh otam Elohim lamor pru urvu imilu et hamayim bayamim v’haof yirav ba’aretz – be fertile and increase and fill the waters of the sea and let the birds increase on earth.”
Moses closes with giving his people hope in the future; and God opens by blessing creation with even more life.
Blessing is the bridge that weaves the end and start of Torah together.
May hope and life carry us forward into this new year of 5784.
With wishes for a Chag Sameah and Shana Tovah u Metukah, a very Happy Simchat Torah and a Healthy and Sweet New Year
Image by: Ksenia Topaz for Masorti Olami
Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz, an accomplished educator and artist, brings decades of experience in development to his position. From 1999 to 2008, he served as JTS’s Senior Rabbinic Fellow based in NY and Florida, responsible for cultivating and expanding the donor base and teaching adult learning study groups throughout the United States. From 2009, he served as Director of Israel Programs for JTS working closely with rabbinical and cantorial students to significantly enrich their Israel experience.
He is a founding partner of Kol HaOt studio project in Jerusalem’s Artist Lane — which weaves the arts deeply into Jewish learning.
Rabbi Berkowitz is the author and illuminator of the widely used The Lovell Haggadah published by Schechter in 2008.
Matt is a Wexner Graduate fellow alumnus and serves on the faculty of The Wexner Heritage Program.
He is married to Nadia Levene and the proud father of three children.
